THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Clifton Adams
MIDSHIPMEN MARCHING FROM CHAPEL
The baccalaureate sermon is delivered the Sunday before commencement, which is known
among the students as "Sob Sunday," because in the old days "the plebes" were supposed to sob
at the departure of the graduating class. Friends, relatives, and sweethearts, especially of the
graduating class, line the walks of the U. S. Naval Academy grounds as the midshipmen march
past, resplendent in their full-dress uniforms.
is only 24 miles away, with a romantic
story of modern Maryland to tell.
No other city in the country except
New York has Baltimore's distinction,
that of being, in population and wealth,
more than half of its State. Baltimore
is a monument to geographic location and
to the initiative of its people.
The city's strategic location has been
summed up in the observation that it is
"the most western of the eastern ports
and the most southern of the northern
ports."
By rail it is more than a hun
dred miles nearer Pittsburgh, Cleveland,
Chicago, and St. Louis than is New York.
This means a freight rate of 60 cents a
ton lower than that to any other Atlantic
port. In point of time, the depth of
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